Love Hina: All Our Sons
by BetweenheavenandHell
Summary: A series of drabbles and oneshots looking at the defining moments of the Love Hina and Blademasters men
1. Family

**Love Hina: All Our Sons **

Act One: Crushed 

Kenichi followed the lazy drift of the lilly as if meandered back and forth across the still, mirror like surface of the lake his wife had so loved. So tranquil was its simple beauty that he couldn't help but think of her as she had been in health…

In the crook of his arm, his newborn daughter shifted in her sleep, blissfully unaware of the dark thoughts racing through her sole remaining parent's mind.

His wife had died to birth this child, this thing of innocence that seemed to defy the reality of her creation, the tragedy.

He wondered if he hated her…

…No, how could he ever despise something that came from his love.

Toying with the wisps of raven hair atop her small head, he smiled an empty smile. Would she look anything like her mother when she grew? Would she be a dagger to the heart every time he looked upon her?

Strange, that one can feel such morbid curiosity in the midst of prevailing sorrow.

Tracing her tiny features he marvelled at how fast she had grown. This was the first time in many weeks he had been sober enough to hold her alone without one of his wife's maids hovering nervously nearby.

As the moonlight glinted of his tears he cursed himself. He was such a weak man at heart; it had taken a scolding from his elder brother to drag him from his self-pity when his family needed him the most.

No more, he could afford such weakness no longer if he hoped to hold onto what he still had.

Kyoko shivered in his arms, reminding him of the coolness of the night air, he would have to bring her inside least she grew ill.

Standing carefully, he took one last lingering look over the pond, etching its every detail into his memory.

This would be the last time he ever came here…

As he turned, his mind was full of plans, decisions coming like a raging torrent.

Firstly he would need to make some changes, his wife's maids would need to be assigned to his daughter to care for her when he could not while he took charge of all the duties his wife had overseen until Kyoko came of age. There would be many in this family who coveted her position and power, and if Kyoko were to hold it, she would have to be schooled thoroughly in the subtler arts of intrigue and politics.

There were a few teachers he was sure he could trust, some who still owed his wife favours, they would raise Kyoko with everything she needed to defend herself, everything he couldn't provide.

Kenichi thrust his rising despair aside at that thought; he needed to be stronger if he wanted to protect his family.

In the distance he heard the cries, his son was calling out for his mother again.

For a moment he almost faltered, almost gave in to the desire to go to his boy's side and cry along with him but with a gargantuan surge of will he restrained himself.

Koichi would have to become stronger as well, learn to stand alone; there was so much to do.

Lost in his own mind he couldn't even hear what he muttered.

"Forgive me my son, forgive me…".

Over the lake an ethereal being, garbed in moonlight wept crystal tears for the man she had called husband as she watched his heart even now, harden, becoming dead to his cause.

She longed to call out to him, to make him see the error of his ways for she had foreseen what his decisions would do to those he was trying to save, but she could not.

The dead cannot speak to the living.

* * *

Act Two: Newborn

Koichi's trademark smile had never been wider or more prominent as he held his newborn son in his arms.

He turned proud eyes upon his exhausted and panting wife. As she was, tired, sweaty, her hair matted to her face and her eyes drooping but serene as he handed their child to her, he couldn't help but think she had never looked more beautiful.

"He's here at last Motoko-chan", Koichi whispered into his wife's ear, taking a seat on the bed next to her and his son, grinning at the solemn expression his child wore as he looked back at his parents with clear sea grey eyes.

"Ryuuya", she breathed back, her gaze never leaving her child, the name that they had chosen somehow seeming much grander as she spoke it now.

"Ryuuya", he agreed, pushing back her sweat clogged hair to offer her a lingering kiss.

"My Lord…", Koichi reluctantly turned away from his family, casting an irritated look at the source of the interruption.

The seven councilmen neither shrunk nor apologised in face of his ire and he supposed that was his fault after a fashion, he had never been able to run things with an iron fist like his father had, it just wasn't in his nature to stay too serious for too long.

They had all been present for the birth of the heir as was custom, but this time something strange had happened, and he knew they would not simply let it pass.

"Can we do this another time? My wife is tired and I wish to spend time with my son", he hated how formal he sounded, but it was the only way to get these men to listen to him at times.

"I fear not my Lord, this concerns the…child", Koichi bristled at the pause the older man left, but he had said nothing he could call him to account on, and in the back blading world he now found himself entrenched in, hitting the old man with a _Steel Cutting Rose_, would only cause him more trouble than it was worth later down the line.

"I apologise my Lord, but you cannot deny what we all saw and felt", the others nodded in affirmation.

Koichi knew what they were talking about. Anyone sensitive would have felt the unnatural amounts of spiritual power Motoko had been putting off during her labour, a power that seemed too great even for one of the Aoyama line to produce.

It was an energy tinged with darkness and evil that had threatened to drive all of the more sensitive members of the Temple mad ebbing and flowing in sickening swirls, and then just as soon as it had manifested it had vanished. Vanished at the precise moment Motoko went into the final stages of the birth.

"And the boy's eyes my Lord, there is nothing in nature that exists as they did", the old man shuddered slightly and Koichi bit his lip to stop himself from screaming at all of them to leave.

When Ryuuya had first been born, his eyes had not been the colour they were now. They had been flecked with a vivid and glowing crimson like the very fires of hell itself.

They were the eyes of a demon.

"That was just a trick of the light, there is nothing unusual now", he managed to keep his voice level but only barely.

"The demon hides itself from our eyes my Lord but that does not mean we should allow wishful thinking to lead us to our destruction… the child must be destroyed", he finished gravely.

"The first person to lay a harming finger on my son dies", Motoko's voice seemed to freeze the air and all eyes turned back to her and the bokken now gripped shakily in her hand as Ryuuya rested in the crook of her other arm.

Her balance was shaky as she stood, but there was death in her eyes for anyone who saw that as weakness.

"My Lady, be reasonable", the eldest of them held out his hands in a placating gesture, "We must put the security of the Clan ahead of our own desires at all times".

"That was the old way of things, and we are better for it to see it go", Koichi stepped between his wife and the councilmen, shooting her a warning glance as he did so.

"Lord Kenichi would have understood the necessity", one of them dared to voice earning a baleful glare that left him shaking until he remembered he was amongst the greater number.

"My Father made a great many mistakes. One of his gravest was putting the Clan before his family. I do not intend to repeat such errors…are we clear?", he eyed each of them in turn, ready to grab Motoko and Ryuuya at the slightest sign these old men were going to question his leadership again and take action for themselves.

"…As you wish my Lord, but we will keep a close eye on that child", the head council member said stiffly, bowing shallowly and turning on his heel, the others following his lead with looks ranging from anger to disappointment.

Koichi let out a long slow breath when the last of them were finally gone.

"Same shit different day", he muttered with a wiry smile that turned to a grimace as something hard came down painfully on the top of his head.

"Mind your tongue around our son", Motoko spoke reproachfully ignoring his mutterings about hormonal women as he rubbed his aching skull.

"You see what you're going to have to put up with when you grow up", he asked his son, ducking another swipe from Motoko and grinning at her as he backed out of range, "Too slow Motoko-chan, I-ahhhh!".

Motoko sighed as the Lord and Master of the _Oni's Bane_ school tripped over a chair, landing with a crash of furniture in a pile on the floor.

"One of the strongest swordsmen in all the land, the man who unlocked the secret of his ancestors most sort after weapon…defeated by a chair… There are times I despair marrying you Koi-kun", Motoko smiled as he pouted and tried to make it look like being bent backwards over a chair was exactly what he had intended to happen, "And that's your Father Ryuuya".

She chuckled as the baby looked on grimly.

**

* * *

More To Come...**


	2. Encounters

Act 3: By Chance?

Keitaro winced as his swollen cheek throbbed angrily.

Naru hadn't held back this time, he couldn't even make out their house in the distance.

_It's been a while since she gave me the full-Naru_, he said, a pathetic attempt at a light-hearted laugh spluttering forth from his lips as his usually optimistic disposition tried to shrug the blow aside as it always had in the past.

However, this time something seemed to hold him back, the burst of reflexive merriment, the near instinctive dismissal of his already healing wounds as he contemplated what had set her off _this_ time so that he could make a note to avoid it in the future, refused to come.

Instead he found himself playing back the argument that had caused her to launch him into the stratosphere.

Naru's temper could be likened to a Tsunami. Both were devastating and terrible in their beauty and both were heralded by warning signs that an observant man could use to save himself, while a fool would be wiped from the map.

_I guess that makes me a fool then_, he though, allowing his legs to carry him on autopilot as soon as he clambered free of his landing crater, dismissing the concerned crowd that had gathered without really paying attention to what they were saying and embarrassedly waving away the paramedics someone had called.

It was strange really, he mused as he tottered a zigzag path away from confused onlookers. He could track a dead civilisation across half a planet starting off with only a thousand yen and a vague idea, usually with Naru either tagging along or with Seta trying to kill them both with his driving before she or Haruka respectively could stop them…but he couldn't predict what would set off his volatile spouse.

Well, that was not entirely true. This time he was sure he an idea at least.

They had been arguing about his work with Seta for a long time now, Naru's noted insecurity pushing her to cling to him in any way possible to prevent him 'leaving' even for a short period.

Understanding this after having Kanako of all people explain it to him during her last visit, he'd tried to cater to it, reassuring her wherever possible, but it had never been enough, though he'd noticed a marked drop of in the number of times she'd hit him from that point on.

That had fallen even further during her pregnancy, right through until their daughter, Kanna, had been born…then everything had gone to hell in a hand basket.

Naru's fears had come back with a vengence and it had seemed like she was trying to make up for lost time. His latest dig had just been the final straw.

Distraught and scared that Keitaro was leaving because he was finished with her now, she had engaged him in an all out screaming match that ended with the return of the Naru-super-punch.

Dimly he was aware of the first patters of rain striking his head as he traipsed lifelessly on.

Why were things like this? Hadn't he and Naru been through enough to be granted the fairytale ending? A love that spanned over a decade before it was fully realised.

…Perhaps he had chosen wrong.

Keitaro slapped himself hard, shaking his head vigorously. He couldn't start thinking like that. He'd spent a long time chasing Naru, or rather, the girl he had made his promise to all those years ago, and they'd somehow been reunited without either of them fully remembering the other, that was not the kind of luck you threw away in a moment of doubt…was it?

What would it have been like if he'd ended up married to Motoko for example?

_Koichi would have killed me_, he thought, smiling as he thought about the last male to join their crazy little group before he had returned to his family grounds with Motoko and his Sister Kyoko, Shinobu joining them when time between her studies allowed it.

_Kitsune?_, Keitaro experienced a vague sense of dread emanating from the direction of his wallet at the same time his liver chose to remind him what living with the Hinata Sou's fox entailed.

He sent Kentaro a silent prayer and shuffled on.

_Su?_, he had almost ended up married to her once as well, though at her own insistence, not his.

_I probably would have been dead before a year passed_, he thought if Su's behaviour that day had been any indicator.

_But there are worse ways to go_, strange how that voice sounded like Haitani's.

_Kanako?_, Keitaro could already feel himself breaking into a cold sweat just thinking about it. Never mind all the legal ramifications, he just didn't know how he would handle someone as…interesting, as his adopted younger sister.

So who did that leave?

A faint sniffling drew him out of his self-pity, his rain slicked hair surprising him as it clung to his face, obscuring his vision as he tried to find the source of the tiny, sorrowful sound.

"Why?", he heard a familiar voice whisper as if unaware he was there, "She was supposed to understand…".

Brushing aside wet bangs and muttering to himself that he needed a trim, Keitaro looked up at something he hadn't seen in what seemed a small eternity.

The Hinata Sou sat proud and unyielding atop the stairway before him, indifferent to his unintentional return.

A strange wash of nostalgia filled him as he gazed upon it and if he closed his eyes behind raindrop obscured glasses, he believed he could almost return to the days before he had left.

"S-senpai?"

"Huh?", his flashbacks were startlingly real, he was sure that Shinobu was really sitting there on the steps, a questioning look on her face as she wiped away a light covering of rain from her face, rubbing at puffy red eyes while waiting for his response.

Wait… that couldn't be a memory, Shinobu's lavish blue hair had not been that long last time he had seen her. It had only reached her mid back, now, dry; it would probably swing down by her posterior like Naru's did.

He starred at he for a moment, startled by the changes in her and how different she appeared to the shy but kind young girl he always remembered when he thought of her.

"Shinobu-ch…", no, that didn't seem quite appropriate anymore somehow, even in his dazed state he realised that, "Shinobu…".

Neither said anything to the other for a moment, and if not for the continuous drone of the rain as it pelted their exposed skin, he would have wondered if time had stopped for a moment.

Her reddened eyes caught his attention and the moment fled along with the strange feeling brewing in the back of his mind.

"Are you ok?", he asked, pointing to her eyes when she didn't react straight away.

"What? Oh, this? I-it's nothing s-senpai, I just", whatever else she might have said was cut short by a rather quiet, but violent sneeze.

"You're soaked", he said, realising how dumb that must have sounded, they both were.

"Come on, I still have a key for the Hinata Sou somewhere", he said patting his drenched lab coat to locate the item, "How about we get dry and you can tell me what's wrong".

It was surprising how quickly he had slipped back into the selfless roll when a confronted with a friend in need.

So why didn't it make him feel any better, and why did he feel that strange churning again when the smaller blue haired girl smiled at him in that wonderfully pure way and nodded, walking along silently at his side as he led the way.

As he slipped the key into the lock he realised something.

There had still been one person left on his list…

**

* * *

---Authors Notes---**

That should cover a few more things. This story will be continued in Black and Blue: Lovers in Turmoil, but from Shinobu's PoV.

I have been swamped by work etc lately, and by desire to write has been largely extinguished as of late. This was an attempt to get back into the swing of things before I start What Dreams May Come and Ryoko's Ladder

Till next time, Betweenheavenandhell


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